As frightening as he was, his class was very popular, and was held in one of Cornell's largest lecture halls. Whenever Strunk walked into the room, it fell silent -- nobody wanting to stand out and be picked on.

He came in to start his lecture one day, armed with a sheaf of papers, as usual. He strode to the lectern, shuffled his papers around, gazed at his students over his spectacles, cleared his throat.